For the few of you who do not know what a catfish is, i am not talking about the actual fish. A catfish is someone who goes online and pretends to be someone else lying to people about who they are. They are often vilified by society because of the deceit. I believe there are different underlying reasons for why people do this. The main one being insecurities. I say this because for the past 6 years I have been a catfish, taking on various personas and the reason i did it was because of my own insecurities about being physically handicapped.

What is your take on this? Do you think catfish should be vilified? Why or why not?

At 6/5/2014 1:40:09 AM, kingcripple wrote:For the few of you who do not know what a catfish is, i am not talking about the actual fish. A catfish is someone who goes online and pretends to be someone else lying to people about who they are. They are often vilified by society because of the deceit. I believe there are different underlying reasons for why people do this. The main one being insecurities. I say this because for the past 6 years I have been a catfish, taking on various personas and the reason i did it was because of my own insecurities about being physically handicapped.

What is your take on this? Do you think catfish should be vilified? Why or why not?

Well, a catfish is taking advantage of someone under false pretenses--a form of fraud. There are lower levels of this, of course--the glossing over of details, the slight airbrushing of photos. But in general a catfish is an entirely created persona. Specifically created to take advantage of someone else, with no thought for that someone else.

Why shouldn't they be villified?

I grant that insecurities are rough. But details can be elided or temporarily ignored without becoming a "catfish"--and once you're really catfishing (usually there's an element of emotional relationship...a catfish is generally someone you think you're dating long-distance through the internet that doesn't actually exist), I think you've gone beyond a place where you can justify your behavior.

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At 6/5/2014 1:40:09 AM, kingcripple wrote:For the few of you who do not know what a catfish is, i am not talking about the actual fish. A catfish is someone who goes online and pretends to be someone else lying to people about who they are. They are often vilified by society because of the deceit. I believe there are different underlying reasons for why people do this. The main one being insecurities. I say this because for the past 6 years I have been a catfish, taking on various personas and the reason i did it was because of my own insecurities about being physically handicapped.

What is your take on this? Do you think catfish should be vilified? Why or why not?

To build on what Bladerunner said, Catfishing is when one person baits another person into thinking that they're in a relationship, emotionally involved, etc. online. It's just about the most horrible thing that's legal for someone can do to someone else on the internet, and yes, anyone who does that deserves to be flensed.

Other than manipulating someone's feelings, I think that there is a real moral distinction between pretending to be someone/something that you're not and just declining to or refraining from revealing information about yourself that you don't want out there. For example, there is no reason to tell the world that you're disabled. In principle, that's just like not telling someone who you just met the first time that you, at one point, struggled with some kind of substance addiction or perhaps were in an abusive relationship. Keeping some information to yourself is fine, totally socially/ethically acceptable and normal. No one fully discloses everything, and we're all better off for it.

But lying is not acceptable. Deceiving people (for any reason) is always immoral and unethical.. it's also stupid. There have been a number of people on DDO who have, throughout their tenure here, made elaborate claims about things they've done, and it's the kind of thing where the pretense can only be maintained for so long. If, for example, you claim to be a genius, to be an expert in some field, to have come from a certain background, etc., and you don't, you will eventually run into someone who is "the real deal" and either they will call you out or they will let it be known that you're not worthy of the community's respect. Being honest will always get you further than otherwise.

At 6/5/2014 1:40:09 AM, kingcripple wrote:For the few of you who do not know what a catfish is, i am not talking about the actual fish. A catfish is someone who goes online and pretends to be someone else lying to people about who they are. They are often vilified by society because of the deceit. I believe there are different underlying reasons for why people do this. The main one being insecurities. I say this because for the past 6 years I have been a catfish, taking on various personas and the reason i did it was because of my own insecurities about being physically handicapped.

What is your take on this? Do you think catfish should be vilified? Why or why not?

I guess I'm a catfish then, because I'm not actually a cannibal clown.

At 6/5/2014 1:40:09 AM, kingcripple wrote:For the few of you who do not know what a catfish is, i am not talking about the actual fish. A catfish is someone who goes online and pretends to be someone else lying to people about who they are. They are often vilified by society because of the deceit. I believe there are different underlying reasons for why people do this. The main one being insecurities. I say this because for the past 6 years I have been a catfish, taking on various personas and the reason i did it was because of my own insecurities about being physically handicapped.

What is your take on this? Do you think catfish should be vilified? Why or why not?

I guess I'm a catfish then, because I'm not actually a cannibal clown.

XD Lol.

...

Or are you a catfish and lying about not being a cannibal clown? *wiggles eyebrows*

Solonkr~
I don't care about whether an ideology is "necessary" or not,
I care about how to solve problems,
which is what everyone else should also care about.

Ken~
In essence, the world is fucked up and you can either ignore it, become cynical or bitter about it.
Deep down, we're all dumbassses who act like shittheads